From Bride to Bridesmaid

Last week, Paul and I had the opportunity to be a part of my brother's wedding.


Yes, indeed, four months after Paul and I were married, James and Linda also tied the knot! It was a beautiful wedding, and I am so lucky to have gained a sweet and wonderful sister...



Chris Chu, Paul, and Ken Lim with my brother...


My mother-in-law came out from Hawaii to spend almost a week and a half with us before the wedding. She is so much fun to be around...


I got to see my little precious nieces again, Lizzy and Rachel...


Boy, am I wedding'd out! My poor parents are trying to catch their breath after this marathon of a year. At least they've married us off and can now move on with their lives.

Bangladesh Mission Trip

Another reason that Paul and I were so busy (i.e. unable to post any blog entries) after we were married is that we were busy preparing for our mission trip to Bangladesh. From September 14 - 23, 2007, a team of 21 individuals from Loma Linda University (2 doctors, 2 dentists, 1 registered nurse, 1 licensed medical massage therapist, 2 nursing students, 9 dental students, 3 dental hygiene students, 1 pre-dental student) in conjunction with 40 local volunteers served the people of Bangladesh. Getting from Dhaka to Jalchatra was an interesting four hour experience. Never have I seen such a densely populated country. There were people everywhere!


The Bangladesh version of a schoolbus...


We had long days, which started at 7 am with worship and ended with an evening worship around 7 pm. As word spread that we were providing free dental and medical/eye care, the people of Bangladesh began to swarm to our little compound. The crowds were almost unmanageable. Our team saw nearly 2000 patients during our short stay there...








It was so hot and humid there that everyone's scrubs were drenched with sweat the entire week! It was literally like living in one big outdoor sauna...


The Dental School let us borrow some fancy equipment...


Thanks to the infamous beetle nut that was habitually chewed in that area of the world, many of the people's teeth looked like this...


Danny Morgan and Carlos Moretta were my flying buddies, since we had to fly in a day later than the rest of the team due to our work schedules...


I did basic eye care during my time there. Through an organization called PRVAIL, we had mass-ordered hundreds of reading glasses to distribute to those presbyopes in need. We also bought basic eye medications to distribute to the people. In about four days of work, I saw close to 400 patients! This would have been virtually impossible without the help of my two trusted translators, Peter and Babu.

This particular old man was sooo overjoyed to have this pair of glasses, donated by Sandra Shirley, one of my fellow church members...


This nun was a cutie...


This gentleman was essentially blind, but he insisted that these glasses helped him see more clearly!


I even had the opportunity to do minor surgery - two chalazion removals...


Near the end of our week, we took an outing on our "minivans" to a nearby forest. It was so surreal...


Snapshot of a local barber shop...


Sabbath afternoon we visited the local village children...


Each of us girls got a sari specially tailored for us...


Bangali couple?


Our awesome team...


Not only were we sad to say goodbye to Bangladesh, but the children shed tears as well...

Hawaii - Here We Come!

We were fortunate to have a week off after the wedding to enjoy a honeymoon in Paul's motherland - Hawaii.

We went to the Big Island first, enjoying the beauty of nature there...


We stayed at the Hilton Waikoloa Village...


ATVing for the first time was quite a rush...


We had a few beautiful pit stops during our ATV ride...


Horseback riding was exhilarating (although Paul was quite sore after the long ride)...


We even got to go snorkeling with the fishies...


Our hotel room had beachfront access, which gave us opportunities to relax in the evenings on the hammock...


It was picture perfect there...


We even left our mark on the lava using white coral...


After a few days of bliss on the Big Island we returned to Oahu to join Paul's mother and church family for another wedding reception...

We've Tied the Knot!

Four months after my last post, I have finally decided to take a step forth into the blogosphere again...now as a married woman. Amidst the craziness of being married and starting ophthalmology residency, time did not permit me to blog at my leisure. Nonetheless, tonight I made the determination to take a free moment to post pictures from our wedding. Paul and I were happily married on June 24, 2007. Here are a few pictures for your enjoyment. Many apologies for the delay!

Before the wedding...


Me, anxious to be married...


Ingrid's famous infrared shots...






My wonderful girlfriends...


Paul completely surprised me with his tears...


Our friends...


Our head table setup...


Cutting the cake...


The slipperiest piggy back ride ever...

Apologies

Three days remaining before the big day! Things have been crazy...hence...the sparse blog entries. This update is a formal apology to my few faithful readers regarding my MIA status in the blogosphere. I promise to update this blog after the wedding and honeymoon are over. Please pray for us as Paul and I soon tie the knot! =)

Graduation Weekend

About this time every year, Loma Linda University becomes a campus bustling with activity. The Class of 2007 from the Schools of Medicine, Pharmacy, and Dentistry were awarded their diplomas yesterday. The whole weekend, in fact, was a whirlwind of activity.

On Saturday morning, after hearing an inspiring sermon by Jason Shives, Paul and I attended the School of Medicine’s Baccalaureate service, where Amy Lee and Evelyn Law played a cello duet.

I have known Amy since our teenage years, and she has always been an outstanding musician. What a blessing that she agreed to share her music with us on our wedding day!

For lunch we went over to Eli and Susie’s house again for our weekly Sabbath potluck. This week the entire Shives clan as well as Eli’s family joined our group of friends.


Ken Lim’s parents even made their appearance. Dr. Lim showed us the “right” way to cut a pineapple.


Saturday night we headed down to San Diego for a huge birthday party for my niece, Taylin, who had just graduated from the eight grade. I didn't realize this would be more than just a family event. More than a hundred people showed up! My old church members from San Diego Korean SDA Church were all gathered there, and I was especially pleased to see Grace So, currently studying law at Georgetown University, and Andreia Kim, an aspiring physician’s assistant, doing her undergraduate studies at my alma mater – UCSD.


Of course, no event is complete without a doggie reunion.


Early Sunday morning, we rushed to attend the School of Medicine graduation.

Congratulations to A.G. (going into Psychiatry)...


and Sunik Oppa (Neurosurgery)...


Andy and Michelle Park (the newlyweds going into Family Practice and FP/Psychiatry, respectively)...


and Eli Kim (FP)...


can't forget to mention Miso Kim (advanced potty training -- upper division)...


and Jason Shives (FP)...


Sally and Aaron Sartin (FP/Preventive Medicine)...


and Ralph Clark (Preventive Medicine)...


and Marshall Ford (Ophthalmology)...


Afterwards, we had a feast at Eli’s house before rushing off to the School of Pharmacy graduation to celebrate with Annie Curnow.


We hung out for a few hours at Tim and Adrian’s house before finally heading to the School of Dentistry graduation in the evening, where my cousin DongWook earned his doctor of dental surgery. Here is a family photo with some of our cousins, uncles, and aunts.


I searched long and hard for my other "cousin," Erina, but could not find her amidst the multitude of people. Congratulations to her, too!!! =)

Other Dental graduates include Brian Chan...


Sarah Kim...


Melissa Lee...


Joe Chang...


Angela Kim...


and the extended Korean clan...


By the time we got to Bernard’s graduation dinner party, I was still stuffed from a whole weekend of eating. Nonetheless, I must say that my aunt had prepared quite a grand setup of fantastic food.



What a weekend. Once again, congratulations to all the graduates!!!

Update on Life

Wedding planning has been incredibly busy, so I admit I have not been blogging on a regular basis. Eric visited the Southern California area a few weeks ago and promptly noted my lack of consistency in the blogosphere recently. So with this entry I hope to appease my few but faithful readers. Sometimes I wonder who actually reads these entries...if you are not shy please identify yourself! =)

On with snippets of my life:

1. Advent HOPE. At the turn of this new year, Paul and I started to attend a new church – Advent HOPE (AH). We have been so blessed by the environment, fellowship, and community we experience weekly, and we really feel God has really led us there. The great thing about this church is that amazing speakers are invited to come and share the Bread of Life every week, and all the sermons are posted on Audioverse. Since I attended a different church for the past few years, I made it a habit of downloading almost every sermon and listening to them on my nano ipod when I went to the gym; this helped encourage my spiritual growth. One new change is that Paul and I were recently elected to serve on the Executive Committee at AH – Paul in the position of Bible Committee and I as Secretary. I look forward to a powerful year as we have the privilege to serve on leadership.

In April, AH had an event called Mountain Church. Instead of attending a formal church service in a building, we drove up to the local mountains, hiked up to a pretty shaded area, and worshiped our Creator in the beauty of His nature. It was a good time. Everyone brought their dogs – even Lucy came!


Last weekend on Saturday evening before their end-of-the-year slideshow, we formed a prayer circle around those individuals who are making transitions in life (graduating, moving away for residency or additional schooling, etc.).


It struck me at that moment that Jason and Janelle and Eli & Susie (& Miso) will really be moving to Florida. Ana Gomez will be going to Kentucky. What a sad moment. I have appreciated their friendship, their leadership, and their enthusiasm for God. May they continue to be a light to those around them wherever they may be.

2. Aunt’s Birthday. Back in March 2007, my aunt had her 60th birthday party. In the Korean culture the 60th birthday marks a huge milestone, as many older generation Koreans lived at a time when the average life expectancy was quite low and they considered it almost a miracle to be alive at that age.


3. Joe and Grace’s Wedding. They tied the knot on April 23, 2007. Congratulations!


4. Forest Lawn. A few weeks ago, a group of us took an outing to a cemetery.


Yes, it was a cemetery. In fact, it is a beautiful cemetery in Glendale which houses two of the world’s largest paintings (The Crucifixion and The Resurrection by Jan Styka). It also houses Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper recreated in brilliant stained glass.


Exact replicas of Michelangelo’s greatest works (David, Moses, and La Pieta) are also found there. Here's David - I made some modest clothing for him.


This also happens to be where my grandparents were laid to rest.


5. Radiology. I have absolutely loved these last four weeks on Radiology. It is a very relaxing rotation, which has allowed me the leisure to plan this wedding as well as enjoy life. One of my attendings, Dr. Dang, is really an amazing person to work with. He is a heavy-set, good-natured, Vietnamese Neuroradiologist from Arkansas. I have picked his brain and requested that he teach me everything there is to know about CTs and MRIs of the head. It has been a very educational experience (when I actually show up to work, that is). =)

6. Facebook. Last month after receiving a friend request from my co-worker, Lanny, I joined Facebook, which seems to be an increasingly popular online network of acquaintances and friends – well, popular with the younger generation. Nonetheless, it has been interesting to be back in touch with people from my not-so-distant past. High school friends and college friends that I have not communicated with for 5 – 10 years have been “found.” These types of internet reunions are always interesting and somewhat amusing. Speaking of reunions, I believe I have a 10 year high school reunion coming up soon. I must be getting old.

7. Isabella. This past weekend, Peter Gregory and his family came out from New Mexico to visit. Isabella had a blast playing with Miso, perhaps to the mini maltese's dismay.


8. DongWook’s Wedding. Congratulations to my cousin on his marriage to Minju!


I had the opportunity to participate in their Pae Baek (traditional Korean ceremony), which was an entertaining experience.


9. Adrian’s Birthday. Finally, I had the privilege of celebrating Adrian’s 26th birthday with him.


I discovered that he has had a very interesting life up until now (he fled Pakistan at the age of 17 and has not seen his mother for the past 9 years). Happy birthday, Adrian!!!

Countdown

What a strange feeling it is to be virtually finished with my internship year. Granted, I still have one more month remaining…but I only have these last, lovely rotations to complete – Radiology and Anesthesiology. It was strategic planning…I must admit, but I am grateful my program has allowed me such leisure. I feel very fortunate to be able to take two weeks of vacation right before my wedding. Another week after the wedding for a honeymoon is an added blessing.

According to my wedding website which has a built-in countdown system, I have 39 days remaining until the big day! As this day approaches, feelings of anticipation, excitement, and joy begin to well up within me. Paul and I have dated for over four years now (4 years, 3 months, and 21 days, to be exact). We have been engaged for 1 year and 3 months. We truly have been through thick and thin together, and it has been a crazy but wonderful ride. We have worked through our differences, reasoned with our parents, learned how to speak lovingly to one another at all times, understood what it means to care deeply for someone other than oneself, and grown together emotionally and spiritually. Never would I have imagined that someone so compatible with me could exist in this world. Never could I have conjured up in my dreams a more perfect companion.

The Lord answered my prayers for a godly life partner – someone who is like-minded and mission-minded. I feel overwhelmed by a sense of gratitude for this miraculous friendship. Perhaps I am a sentimentalist. Perhaps I am idealistic. Perhaps I am blinded by love. But whatever the case, I am grateful for the precious gift of Paul – my future husband.

Explorer: Inside North Korea

Here are some clips of the National Geographic documentary on North Korea. My soul was stirred when I saw images of this communistic, isolated, poverty-stricken, brain-washed country. God-willing...one day I plan to serve there.

Part I


Part II

Drama on Internal Medicine

Drama. This word encompasses what my Internal Medicine rotation has turned out to be. I cannot believe it, but today I officially completed my last call of internship. In fact, today marks the last day of my life that I will ever have to partake in an Internal Medicine rotation. This month has indeed been filled with drama. From turf wars between Emergency Medicine and Internal Medicine physicians regarding hospital admissions criteria to disgruntled family members of patients who threaten to pursue legal actions, this rotation has never lacked excitement.

Below I will share one episode in this fabric of drama.

One middle-aged gentleman whom we will call “John Doe” was intubated and admitted to the Intensive Care Unit a little over two weeks ago for a massive intracranial hemorrhagic stroke likely secondary to methamphetamine abuse and hypertension. His wife claimed to be completely unaware of her husband’s alleged substance abuse. After that initial meeting in the ED during which we admitted the patient, I had no contact with “Mrs. Doe” during Mr. Doe’s stay in the ICU. Once he was downgraded about a week ago to the telemetry floor and our team resumed care of the patient, I was introduced to the drama.

On Tuesday, April 17th, Mr. Doe’s nurse paged me and asked me to speak with the wife on the phone. Apparently, she was very upset for a variety of reasons and had taken her complaints to top hospital administrators. I dutifully dialed the number and initiated the conversation with Mrs. Doe. She proceeded to lash out against everyone and everything that had to do with the care of her husband while at our facility. She expressed major dissatisfaction for the ignorance of residents caring for Mr. Doe, lamented the fact that no two individuals had given her the same prognosis about her patient (the neurosurgery resident had given her a glimmer of hope while other physicians more realistically spoke of the patient’s poor prognosis), bemoaned the stupidity of nurses who placed restraints on her husband’s left arm when he clearly had suffered a right-sided stroke and hemiparesis, complained that no one is listening to her wishes or giving her updates on her husband’s progress, and maliciously criticized the group of physicians who had supposedly accused her of being a methamphetamine user also.

After listening to her emotionally charged speech for almost forty-five minutes, it was all I could to keep myself from reacting to her verbal abuse. The carnal nature in me began to arise. After all, how could she make all these false accusations when we were doing the best that we could to treat her husband? How could she belittle my colleagues and in essence demean my co-residents who had done all in their power to help him to the best of their clinical judgment? Was it our fault that she did not have insurance and had to seek care at our county facility? If she wanted to pay out of pocket, she was welcome to take her husband to a private institution for a second opinion if she truly felt that we were not providing quality care.

As these thoughts were racing in my mind, I desperately breathed a prayer heavenward for help. It was only the Lord who sustained me, keeping me calm and collected, allowing me to continue apologizing on behalf of those who may have caused her bad experiences and keeping my voice from assuming the icy edge that I was so tempted to use. I reassured her that we did care and that we wanted to do our best to better the lines of communication; thus, we came to the conclusion that I would update her personally every few days on the status of her husband and call her with any new changes. I was so emotionally drained after this conversation that the distraction from having a terribly busy call later that night was a blessing in disguise.

On the morning of Thursday, April 19th, I came to work and realized that Mr. Doe’s mental status had decreased slightly after a severely hypertensive episode earlier that morning and that his pupils had become fixed and dilated. A head CT revealed that a new area of bleeding had occurred in the right midbrain area and that there was slight herniation of the brain downward. I called Mrs. Doe about this change and asked her to come in to discuss his code status. After a large meeting with Mrs. Doe, her sister, my senior resident, several hospital administrators, and patient advocates, she finally agreed to make the patient “DNR” (Do Not Resuscitate) – i.e. withhold heroic measures (chest compressions, intubation, or ACLS drugs).

On Sunday, April 22nd, I was exhausted post-call and about to go home when I remembered I had not touched bases with Mrs. Doe over the weekend. She happened to be at bedside at the time, so I was able to speak with her in person. During this conversation, she revealed that she had been unable to sleep, eat, concentrate; constantly crying at home; unable to go to work. She expressed more of her frustrations, but this time I could see more of the hurt in her heart. As God moved in my heart to feel compassion for this lady whose life was totally changed by this abrupt medical tragedy, I almost shed tears with her. I agreed to ask my team to request a Neurology consult, per the wife’s wishes. After our extended conversation, I felt nudged by the Spirit to ask her if she had any type of religious background. When she said she did, I asked if I could pray with her. She looked into my eyes and said, “I would really appreciate that.” Unexpectedly she extended her arms to embrace me, and I then proceeded to pray for the patient and his wife. I don't remember what I prayed...I don't even think that I said the most appropriate, comforting words, but God must have changed around my prayer to soften Mrs. Doe's heart. She expressed her gratitude profusely before I left. And that is what I would call another emotionally draining day at work.

Yesterday morning on April 25th I went to the hospital to face another overnight call. When I went to my usual post on the fourth floor of the hospital, there was something was strange about the room where Mr. Doe had been staying. The curtains were no longer halfway drawn as it had been in the past. The handmade sign on the outer door was a different one from the one that Mr. Doe’s room had had. When I peaked my head inside, sure enough there was another patient in the room. I immediately knew. Mr. Doe had passed away. I immediately felt shocked, then saddened. Then finally it dawned on me that I had been expecting this to happen all along and that my major concern was that Mrs. Doe was okay. Upon questioning the nurse, I found out that Mr. Doe had been transferred to the ICU the night before for a blood pressure in the 60s over 30s and that Mrs. Doe had reacted well to news of her husband’s death. She had spoken with the Neurologist the day prior and was by that time mentally prepared for him to pass away.

What an experience. For some reason Mr. Doe's death really impacted my life. I hope and pray that Mrs. Doe will be able to cope with this major loss in a positive way and that she will regain her strength in the Lord. And as I have admittedly become more calloused, desensitized, and cynical during this year of internship, I pray that God will work in my heart – that I may be more compassionate and empathetic, that I may treat and love everyone (including drug addicts) just as God loves them, and that I may be an effective witness for Him.